APUSH Full Timeline

1491-1607

Period 1

1492

Christopher Columbus sails for Spain and lands in the Carribean beginning European colonization of the New World

1521

Hernan Cortes leads Spanish forces to defeat the Aztec Empire

1532

Francisco Pizzaro leads Spanish forces to defeat the Incan Empire

1542

Bartolome de Las Casas writes A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

1549

repartimiento system replaces the encomienda system (not enforced)

1587

Britain’s failed Roanoke colony

1588

British defeat the Spanish Armada

1598

Acoma Pueblo Massacre

1607-1754

Period 2

1607

Jamestown colony (England’s first permanent settlement in the New World; founded by a joint-stock company)

1609-1610

"Starving time”

1612

John Rolfe promotes tobacco cultivation

1619

Virginia House of Burgesses, first African slave arrives in North America via Dutch ship

1620

Plymouth colony, Mayflower Compact (first sign of self-governance in New World)

1630

Massachusetts Bay Colony, beginning of the Great Migration (Puritans emigrate from England to New World)

1632

Maryland and Georgia colonies

1636

Rhode Island colony

1638

Anne Hutchinson banned from Massachusetts

1639

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1640

end of the Great Migration

1649

Act of Religious Toleration in Maryland

1651

Navigation Acts (+salutary neglect)

1662

Half-Way Covenant in Massachusetts

1663

Carolina colony

1675

King Philip’s (aka Metacom’s) War begins

1676

Bacon’s Rebellion

1679

New Hampshire separates from Massachusetts

1680

Pueblo Revolt

1681

Pennsylvania colony (William Penn + Quakers)

1686

Dominion of New England

1688

Glorious Revolution, Enlightenment begins

1689

colonists dismantle Dominion of New England

1692

Salem Witch Trials

1711

Carolinas split into North and South

1730

First Great Awakening begins

1733

Molasses Act

1735

Zenger Trial

1739

Stono Rebellion

1740

First Great Awakening ends

1741

Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon

1754

French and Indian War begins

1754-1800

Period 3

1763

Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian War, Proclamation Act, end salutary neglect, Pontiac’s Rebellion

1764

March of the Paxton Boys, Grenville Program begins with the Sugar Act, First Committee of Correspondence in Boston

1765

Stamp Act, Stamp Act Congress, Quartering Act, Patrick Henry’s “no taxation without representation”

1766

Stamp Act repealed, Declaratory Acts

1767

Townshend Act

1770

Townshend Act repealed, Boston Massacre

1773

Tea Act, Boston Tea Party

1774

Intolerable Acts, Suffolk Resolves, Quebec Act, First Continental Congress

1775

Battles of Lexington and Concord, Second Continental Congress, Battle of Bunker Hill, Olive Branch Petition

1776

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”

1777

Battle of Saratoga, Battle of Trenton, drafting of the Articles of Confederation

1781

Battle of Yorktown, Articles of Confederation ratified

1783

Treaty of Paris ends American Revolution

1784

First Land Ordinance

1785

Second Land Ordinance

1786

Shay’s Rebellion, Annapolis Convention

1787

Northwest Ordinance, Constitutional Convention (Virginia Plan + New Jersey Plan = Great Compromise; 3/5ths Compromise)

1788

Federalist Papers

1789

George Washington elected (1st term), Constitution is ratified, Judiciary Act, French Revolution begins, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

1791

Bill of Rights is ratified, Hamilton’s Financial Plan and First Bank of the US

1792

George Washington elected (2nd term)

1793

war between Britain and France, Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin

1794

Whiskey Rebellion, Jay’s Treaty, Battle of Fallen Timbers

1795

Pinckney’s Treaty, Treaty of Greenville

1796

John Adams elected, Washington’s Farewell Address

1798

XYZ Affair, Quasi-War with France, Alien and Sedition Acts, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

1800

Thomas Jefferson elected (1st term)

1800-1848

Period 4

1801

Judiciary Act (Midnight Appointments)

1803

Marbury v. Madison, enter Chief Justice John Marshall, Louisiana Purchase

1804

Thomas Jefferson elected (2nd term)

1807

Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, Embargo Act

1808

James Madison elected (1st term)

1809

Non-Intercourse Act, Macon’s Bill Number 2

1811

Battle of Tippecanoe, BUS expires

1812

James Madison elected (2nd term), War of 1812 begins

1814

burning of Washington DC, Hartford Convention, Treaty of Ghent

1815

Battle of New Orleans

1816

James Monroe elected (1st term), Era of Good Feelings begins, chartering of the Second BUS, Tarrif of 1816

1819

Panic of 1819, McCulloch v. Maryland, Adams-Onis Treaty

1820

James Monroe elected (2nd term), Missouri Compromise, Temperance Movement

1821

opening of Lowell factories

1823

Monroe Doctrine

1824

John Q. Adams elected, Gibbons v. Ogden, the Corrupt Bargain

1825

opening of Erie Canal

1828

Andrew Jackson elected (1st term), Tarrif of Abominations, John Calhoun’s “South Carolina Exposition”

1830

Indian Removal Act

1831

Nat Turner’s Rebellion, William Lloyd Garrison’s "Liberator”

1832

Andrew Jackson elected (2nd term), Tariff of 1832, Nullification Crisis begins, Worcester v. Georgia

1833

Force Bill, Compromise Tariff of 1833, American Anti-Slavery Society, Jackson defunds 2nd BUS

1834

founding of Whig Party

1835

Second Seminole War

1836

Martin Van Burhen elected, Gag Rule, Battle of the Alamo, Lone Star Republic led by Sam Houston

1838

The Trail of Tears

1840

William Henry Harrison elected (Log Cabin Campaign)

1841

John Tyler assumes presidency after Harrison’s death, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

1843

Dorothea Dix advocates for mental health and establishment of mental asylums